Next Meeting of the Gloucestershire Partnership PPI Forum

12/06/2006

The Gloucestershire Partnership PPI Forum will be holding a meeting in public in Fairford on Wednesday 21 June at 10.00am.

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Partnership Patient and Public Involvement Forum said:

“We understand the difficulty in which the Gloucestershire Partnership Trust finds itself but we are concerned about the impact the proposed organisational and financial changes will have on patients in Gloucestershire.

We are concerned that the requirement placed on the Health Service to balance its books by the end of the current financial year puts the Trust in a very difficult position. Changes which were to have been introduced over a period of two to three years now have to be implemented in the course of the next 12 months.

As a Forum we are particularly concerned that day services are to be cut for some older people. For many a weekly visit to a day centre is a lifeline. We hope the Trust will make every effort to ensure that some provision is made for elderly people with mental health problems even if their needs are not classified as complex.

We are also concerned about the Trust’s intention to suspend out of hours on-call arrangements for Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Arrangements currently in place are not adequate and total suspension might be disastrous. Definite alternative arrangements for out of hours must be in place before any cuts are introduced.

As the PPI Forum monitoring the Trust we consider it to be a well managed organisation which was awarded three star status in 2005.

Over the past two years, consultations about changing the way the Trust delivers services have taken place and plans for moving away from in-patient services to community based services in line with patient preference and national criteria are well in hand. We know that the Crisis and Home Treatment Teams, for example, are providing a valuable service ensuring that some patients do not need long term in-patient care and, the direct payments scheme is allowing patients to remain in their own homes with care and support which costs significantly less than residential care.

We feel that the impact of the proposed changes could be reduced if the Secretary of State delayed until 2007/8 the requirement to clear historical debts. With more time better decisions and proper consultation could be achieved.”

The Forum will be holding a meeting in public on Wednesday 21st June at the Fairford Community Centre from 10.00am. We would welcome the views of the public on the changes being proposed by the Gloucestershire Partnership Trust.

To view the agenda, please click here

If you are not able to make the meeting and would like to send your views to the Forum please contact:

Gloucestershire Partnership PPI Forum
C/o Scout Enterprises
Lancaster House
Meteor Business Park
Cheltenham Road East
Gloucester, GL2 9QL

Tel: 01452 859000 or

Email: annabevan@scout-enterprises.co.uk
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